The opera follows the story of the devout King Roger, a man weighed down by responsibilities and duty. The arrival of a Shepherd preaching a hedonistic creed threatens to cause chaos for both Roger and his Kingdom. Find out more in our Opera Essentials article.

‘The brilliance of the opera is that it is at once deeply personal and incredibly universal’, said Kasper. ‘Szymanowski had something personal to say about things that were troubling him in society – for example, his family estate was burnt to the ground by an angry mob during the bloody aftermath of the Russian revolution, and he was a homosexual living in a deeply catholic society. It’s not autobiographical, but is about any of us who have repressed desires and struggle to find the balance.’

‘The early 20th century was an incredible period in operatic history with so much experimentation. Artists turned to the medium of opera to express something unique, and questions of spirit and identity were investigated in such a courageous way’, says Kasper. ‘It is wonderful that we keep doing works like La traviata and La bohème, but the early 20th century is such a treasure trove of ambition, and there are lots of pieces to explore from that period. I am sure we will see more and more of it in opera houses. Next Season for example, we have George Enescu’s Oedipe.’

Watch more films like this on the Royal Opera House YouTube Channel:

Król Roger runs until 19 May 2015. Tickets are still available.

The production is generously supported by The Monument Trust, The Danish Research Foundation, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music Programme, The Taylor Family Foundation, Hamish and Sophie Forsyth, David Hancock, Michael Hartnall, Susan and John Singer and the Connoisseurs’ Series.

The American tenor is performing at the ENO in Peter Sellars' production of The Indian Queen, which opened last night, before joining The Royal Opera as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.

‘I am so excited to be embraced by London and UK audiences’, Noah said to Suzy Klein on a recent episode of BBC Radio 3's In Tune, ‘and it’s such a blessing to be returning to Covent Garden to sing Madama Butterfly in an iconic house.’

Noah is performing the role of dashing cad Pinkerton – but playing a notorious opera baddie has a downside:

‘I would say I’ve been booed 21 times as Pinkerton. Each time, it’s not a great feeling, but I know if I’ve been booed I’ve done my job’, he says. ‘What saves me is that it’s one of Puccini’s best-written roles for the tenor voice. It’s very lyrical and very high, and my voice sits perfectly in that range. Pinkerton is also an American character so I feel very at home in playing the part.’

Watch a Noah perform 'L’Ultima canzone' by Tosti on In Tune:

Later this year, Noah will be performing his UK solo tour So In Love, which opens in Leeds on 19 April.

‘This tour traces my musical steps and history, combining my favourites of opera with musical theatre’, he says. ‘I think we should always cross genres, as all art is wonderful’.

In addition to performing a selection of songs, Noah also discussed returning to his home town of Harlem, singing opera in the supermarket and why he loves Broadway music.

'For the orchestra, Anna Nicole is a big deal,' says the Music Director of the Season-opening return of Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera. 'It's hard to define what it is - jazz, pop, a pseudo-American musical idiom. It brings out something new for them. They have to find something differentinside of them to put this stuff across, maybe their younger selves, which is what I have to do to conduct it.'

He’s also excited about the return of Verdi's I due Foscariafter a 19-year absence from the Covent Garden stage: 'It's not often heard but it's an opera with a wonderful pathos and a wonderful relationship between a father and his son - Verdi doesn't have too many of them! It's sad from the beginning and there's very little respite. It has a darkness which I would say is akin toSimon Boccanegra, but in embryonic form.'

Plácido Domingo will sing the role of Francesco Foscari, and Antonio is looking forward to seeing the baritone inhabit a role which the Music Director sees as perfect for him: 'He needs the stage like bread and water. It brings out something that's very touching in him, something that we didn't see before as the romantic hero. Here he's caught between his duty as leader of state and trying to free his son from imprisonment and exile. He's in a terrible dilemma and to see him emote in this way is something quite beautiful.'

With such a busy Season ahead, leading both The Royal Opera and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, how does he switch off?

'It's difficult for any conductor. You're involved with public relations, with sponsors and the administrative elements of the job. I lead two institutions, and they complement each other wonderfully - a symphony orchestra and the opera house. Each demands a tremendous amount of loyalty, attention, and physical energy from me. I'm very fortunate in that part of my job is meeting a lot of people and I've met so many wonderful people in the past couple of years, especially sponsors. We've got a real family at Covent Garden and in Rome. I'm really proud of that.'

Antonio has regularly commented on the importance of the arts in society, something echoed during his In Tune interview: 'The arts are always viewed with suspicion, and we have to justify ourselves - why do we get money? Poetry, beauty, theatre and drama is something that every human being needs, in one form or another. And it's a beautiful thing.'

'It's never too late for a debut,' Karita told presenter Sean Rafferty. 'I'm glad in a sense that I waited so long with this part, because now I realize that you really need two voices for it - one very low with these lyrical touches and then this very Wagnerian [voice], with a very dramatically-written top.'

'It being an opera within an opera makes it even more fascinating. When I was learning it, it was hard to understand what it was about, but the production has certainly helped.'

Karita first sang Strauss in 1995, performing the role of Chrysothemis in Elektra: 'It was a totally different repertoire compared to what I had been doing before. That was the start, and then came Arabella and Salome.'

The singer also touched upon her future plans during the interview. When asked by Sean Rafferty about potential plans to sing Wagner - and in particular Tristan und Isolde- she said: 'I don't know. I should probably wait - I'm like Ariadne, just hopefully not waiting for the same thing! After my first Sieglinde [in Die Walküre] next year, I'll see how it feels.'

Ariadne auf Naxos runs 25 June–13 July 2014. Tickets are still available.
There will be a concert performance, with the same cast, in the Birmingham Symphony Hall on 6 July 2014. Tickets can be bought through the Symphony Hall website.

'I owe Puccini very much. Tosca is so precisely composed. It's nice to be able to look at what he wrote, and what he didn't write,' he told presenter Sean Rafferty.

‘What is important is the feelings of the public,' said Oleg when asked if he felt the opera had become over-sentimentalized. 'It's so modern in many ways, but we don't think of Puccini as a modern composer. Strauss wrote like him 10 years later, Schoenberg loved Puccini and Stravinsky did too. We're astonished to discover that those composers respected him immensely but he had an influence on all of them.'

Oleg is the son of famous Ukranian-born conductor Igor Markevitch: 'He conducted very little opera, but he did conduct once at Covent Garden so I make my debut 70 years after he did!'

'The role of Violetta in La traviata is a difficult one,' Diana told presenter Sean Rafferty. 'You hear people say that you need three sopranos to sing one traviata because all the acts are very different. You have to show the journey. She sparkles in the first act but she knows that she's going to die - there's a big dark cloud on top of her the whole time. I wanted a special sound to express those feelings.'

Diana is singing Violetta for the first time at Covent Garden, after performing the role in other productions at La Scala and the Met: 'I'm so happy to finally sing my first traditional La traviata where I can be sick and fragile but through all this show the strength of this woman. I saw Franco Zeffirelli's film adaptation aged 12. I switched on the TV and was glued to it. After that I was an opera lover.'

Many singers find that their voice changes with age, and Diana is no exception: 'When I started taking singing lessons, I was 15 years old and I had yet to understand technique. My voice sounded very light. My teacher said "You're a pure coloratura soprano with the stratospheric notes but your voice also has the quality of changing later after you've sung the light repertoire. You'll see it develop, but on its own". It was a gradual process but that's what happened.'

She spoke of the early years of her career, singing in Würzburg, and then the transition to larger stages: 'Würzburg was a nice company but it's a small opera house. We did a lot of music not in the original language, but in German. We did My Fair Lady for instance, but with Berlin accents. I then sang Zerbinetta at the Bavarian State Opera - that was my first big step - before singing Aithra in Die ägyptische Helena by Richard Strauss at the Met, then the most dramatic role I'd sung. I then took more lyric parts to find out what is possible with my voice. Since giving birth to two boys, I've really heard a significant change in my voice and I think now I'm ready for La traviata.'

Rehearsals have been underway for a couple of weeks and - though now all in full health ready for opening night - illness struck the members of the cast during rehearsals, including soprano Sonya Yoncheva: 'I had to do all my lovemaking scenes with a 32-year-old Australian called Greg who stood in for Marguerite!', Joseph told presenter Suzy Klein.

The two singers spoke about the challenges of singing in French:

'I love to sing in Welsh and English. German music too, but I don't often have an occasion to sing in Russian or French so it's always lovely to return to them and to be taught how to sing them,' said Bryn. 'Singing in French is very difficult but these are hurdles you have to overcome with hard work and dedication.'

'I do speak French but my vowels are occasionally too Italianate because of the way I studied; but we have a wonderful coach who gives us notes all the time. She's tough but in a nice way,' said Joseph. 'French is a lovely language - it's so romantic and fulfilling to sing.'

Joseph, who is making his debut in the role of Faust, has found elements of the characterization challenging:

'The main difficulty of the role is acting as an old man in the first act, and having all that anger towards God. My very Catholic mother is coming to see one of the performances and I'm sure she'll chide me for conjuring Satan! Yesterday my girlfriend paid me the greatest compliment - she told me that she didn't recognise me when I came on stage in the opening bars. She only recognized me when I opened my mouth and sang.'

Bryn sang the role of Méphistophélès at the production's 2004 premiere. Suzy asked him if he had trouble returning to it after performing so many roles in the intervening decade:

'I remember it all. When something makes sense in your mind and your soul, you remember it. Sometimes movements bring back words and colours so sitting on that box of magic once again brought back memories. It's a wonderful production. I haven't sung in Faust since, so to hear the reaction of the audience is interesting. Hopefully it develops too as you have different colleagues in the cast and a different conductor. I feel much more comfortable in the role than in 2004.'

Following his performances in Sweeney Todd in New York, Bryn joked that his mindset is very in much the mould of the lyric stage's darker characters: 'I go to my local restaurant and they ask if I'd like coffee: ‘Grr, Yes! Oh, sorry...’

Bryn and Joseph also told Suzy the identity of their musical heroes.

Faust runs from 4–25 April 2014. Tickets are still available.The production is a co-production with Opéra de Monte Carlo, Opéra de Lille and Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi, Trieste, and is given with generous philanthropic support from David Hancock, Spindrift Al Swaidi, Martin and Jane Houston, Mr and Mrs Christopher W.T. Johnston, The Tsukanov Family Foundation, The Connoisseurs’ Series and The Friends of Covent Garden.

Before curtain up on The Royal Opera’s new production of Parsifal, baritone Gerald Finley – who is singing the role of Amfortas – spoke to BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.

‘The effect of his transgression before the opera begins overpowers the whole element of the opera,’ said Gerald, speaking of his character, dubbed by presenter Sean Rafferty as 'the betrayer of the Holy Grail'. ‘From the very beginning people are worried about him [Amfortas] and trying to keep him alive. So although it’s not a significant singing role necessarily, it’s very demanding when one is on stage.’

‘We brought it so that there are no dilemmas in terms of where it’s set, it’s absolutely contemporary. The story however, I hope is very clear,’ said Gerald of Stephen Langridge’s new production.

The Canadian baritone performed an extract from Winterreise by Franz Schubert and ‘I wonder as I wander’ by Benjamin Britten live in the studio, as well as speaking about the newly-released recording of Glyndebourne’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

‘I only have one voice, I have to make sure it’s pretty flexible,’ said Gerald about coping with the demand of singing such a wide repertory. ‘I suppose it’s wellbeing in one’s self – good health, good eating, keeping busy and making sure there’s always a project on the fly. To sing Wagner and to play the songs of Britten is a great privilege. I hope I can do both for a long time!’

Njabulo grew up in a small township just outside Durban in South Africa, and was introduced to music by the Zulu songs that his grandmother sang to him. He came to London as a member of a choir and was encouraged to audition for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GMSD). ‘When I auditioned, I couldn’t read music and had never sung an aria or a song,’ he says. ‘I took a choir piece and just sang a line from the bass!’

He went on to gain a Bachelors of Music (Hons) and Masters Degree from the opera course at GMSD, and subsequently won the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition in 2010. ‘No one in my community knew that you could go and make a career out of music, so it has been a wonderful surprise for my family,’ he says.

Njabulo is currently in rehearsals for a new Royal Opera commission by Julian Philips entitled How the Whale Became, in which he will sing the role of the Elephant, the Whale and God. Watch the trailer.

‘It’s a beautiful story that looks at how the animals became and what their dissatisfactions were,’ he explains. ‘For example, when I play the Elephant he is really distressed that he is bald and doesn’t have the hair that the polar bear has.’

During In Tune, Njabubo performed Go Lovely Rose by Roger Quilter and a selection of traditional African songs, including Qongqothwane (The Click Song), from his album Songs of Home. He was accompanied by William Vann on the piano.

The production is generously supported by the Taylor Family Foundation, Mrs Lily Safra, The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund, The Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation and Britten-Pears Foundation.

'It's a wonderful opera that was new to me but since I've conducted Don Carlo so much, to be back with the Parisian Verdi has been quite an adventure,' Antonio told presenter Sean Rafferty. 'I'm very happy we're doing it in French because the whole colour of the piece takes on something of the unexpected - there's a different frisson, a different electricity in the French language.'

Antonio also spoke of the look of the new production, which has been updated to the era of the opera's premiere: 'You'll want to take the story with a grain of salt in terms of the period - we've updated the setting. Stefan Herheim, the producer, has found a beautiful setting - the opera house of Théâtre Impérial. The story is told very clearly but it's a discussion not only about the French against the Sicilians, but about art and the raping of art, and how art is used… It's a beautiful production; visually stunning and musically sumptuous.'

Les Vêpres siciliennes had its premiere in 1855 during the heydey of French grand opera and saw Verdi following in the footsteps of Offenbach and Meyerbeer: 'What's amazing about this score is that there are so many dances - a tarantella, a bolero, a barcarole. Verdi reinvented himself when he wrote for Paris. The melodies are unexpectedly longer in their phrasing and the duets, which make the biggest part of the opera, have a structure more like Rossini's William Tell rather than Verdi's other operas. These operas take their time and they're big!'

Antonio spoke to the reasons why the opera is only now being staged for the first time, and its rarity: 'The piece has a history of being done in Italian. Certain big singers were drawn to it - Maria Callas and many others. You need the top singers. The length is an issue - when these pieces were done by Callas they were cut to ribbons. I believe the cumulative effect of doing almost everything - we're pruning here and there but very little - pays dividends structurally, in intensity and over the whole evening the experience is richer. The piece does hold up but it needs to be done well.'

Antonio also gave his thoughts on what opera Verdi would have written had he lived longer, how the composer influenced the operatic singing style of today and how he himself runs rehearsals.

You can download the Tuesday 8 October interview with Antonio Pappano from the In Tune Podcast page - files are organized by date.